Springs Spotlights Wamsutta

Springs Global relaunched the Wamsutta brand with four top of bed colors statements, five sheeting programs, quilts and matelesse at the recent New York market.

The Wamsutta focus follows the relaunch last market of the Springmaid brand, and is part of the company's strategy to rebuild its branded business as it also continues to pursue private label programs.

Whereas the core Springmaid customer is a woman whose life revolves around her home and family, the Wamsutta customer "is more focused on herself, her husband, her partner," said Mette Odom, marketing director. "She's very confident about who she is, her ability to decorate and make it her own."

Springs is positioning Wamsutta as "the color authority," said Reesa Glassman, senior design director. To that end, Springs showed four monochromatic top of bed designs:

Carlyle is a cotton jac panel in white and ocean, emphasizing the Wamsutta scroll;

Murphy is a masculine ottoman weave against a flat panel weave in mushroom and sand;

Sommerset is a comforter with a stitched, scalloped edge shown in platinum but available in several colors;

Madison is a duvet cover of cotton file in soft lavender with oversized cloth buttons running vertically up the each side of the platform.

Sheeting is grounded in three signature programs:

Heritage Scallop, the original Wamsutta hem scallop embroidered on the cuff of the sheet and pillowcase;

Modern Scallop, a trimmer version of the original;

Layered Scallop, the Modern Scallop stitched across the cuff in seven layers.

Springs also introduced two core printed sheet programs for Wamsutta: Walker and Tile. The Walker pattern is scaled up in a matelasse coverlet; Tile is rendered in a quilt. The new Chevron quilt stretches the chevron pattern so that it reads to the eye as a horizontal.

"These styles are colored in multiple color ways so they can be layered across the brand," said Glassman.

The existing Wamsutta Egyptian cotton towel has added 12 new colors to coordinate with the rebranded color story. New bath accessories include the more feminine Carlyle in porcelain and the masculine Murphy in ceramic with a flat finish and nickel accents.

Since last market's Sprinmaid relaunch emphasized bedding, Springs decided to spotlight fresh designs in bath this season. "It's really a strength of our organization," said Odom.

Springs is also orienting its designs to reflect four seasons of Springmaid: Spring Back to the Gym, Spring into the Garden, Spring into the Summer and Spring into the Holidays.

In this vein, it's creating packages that can serve as seasonal endcap items or giftable offerings — for example, two Springmaid sports towels rolled up and settled into a biodegradable flower pot along with a pair of gardening gloves and a backpack beach bag with beach towel and flip flops.

"How do you present products in new ways that are relevant" to the consumer, said Odom. "It also gets the brand out of the aisle and onto the endcap."